Revolutionary War Broken black glass bottle neck, dug at Pamunkey River Bed

Being offered it the neck of a broken Revolutionary War bottle, measuring 5” x 4 ½”. A while back when in Richmond, I met up with a local digger. he had several pieces of Revolutionary War broken black glass bottles, circa 1740 – 1780 (actually dark green, but called black glass). When a hurricane went through the area of Hanover County, Virginia, along the Pamunkey River, it exposed these pieces in a creek bed (see pictures).

Hanover County had two villages which in the 17th and 18th centuries were considered as potential sites as the Virginia Capital. Newcastle Town was built on the banks of the Pamunkey River around 1739 and Hanover Town was first settled in the early 1740s. Hanover Town was badly damaged by British troops during the American Revolution and very little remained when General U.S. Grant’s Union troops crossed the Pamunkey River there in 1864. Newcastle suffered from the Revolution as well with silting in the Pamunkey River and nothing remains of both Colonial-era communities.

Nothing too exciting about these pieces, but they are remnants of bottles which soldiers actually drank from, (probably British), during the American Revolution. In the Fort Ticonderoga, NY Museum collection there are numerous shards of broken bottles in their collection (see pictures). Also, several years ago, a bottle neck with cork was excavated from the cellar of Washington’s Headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts (see pictures).

I took what the digger had remaining and am offering them here as individual pieces. When these bottles are complete, they sell for over $300.00 each. They are true Revolutionary War pieces of history and are great inexpensive relics.